Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence detained Kurdish Sunni clerics Jafar Parvini and Ali Rahimi after summoning them in Piranshahr, West Azerbaijan province, on 20 February.

The two clerics were summoned over their support for the recent anti-government protests in Iran and their condemnation of the suppression of protesters by the military-security forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Parvini, a teacher in the Salahuddin Ayoubi religious school in Piranshahr, was taken to an undisclosed location, Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned.

The ministry released Rahimi, the imam of the Kohneh Khaneh in Piranshahr, after several hours of interrogation.

In the past two months, security forces arrested at least 13 Kurdish Sunni clerics in the cities of Orumiyeh, Piranshahr, Naqadeh, Sardasht, Javanrud and Sanandaj.